Trivia

Sarted out her career in a punk band called The Family Von Trapp. She apparently secured her first presenting job on channel 4's The Tube (1982) after the band had a failed audition for the show.

Attended the Glasgow School of Art, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design and Illustration. One of her fellow graduates was the actor Peter Capaldi.

The first interview she did after joining The Tube (1982) was with Paul Weller.

Her son Hector is a DJ, known by the pseudonym Denis Sulta.

At the age of 29, she was appointed Rector of Edinburgh University, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

Before her broadcasting career, she worked as Assistant Head of Design at the Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, from 1980-83.

Founded her own production company, Gallus Besom, in 1989, which was renamed Ideal World in 1993. The company merged in 2004 with Wark Clements, the company co-owned by fellow broadcaster Kirsty Wark and her husband Alan Clements, to form IWC Media. The partners then sold the new company in 2005 to media company RDF Media for an estimated £12 million.